SERIES PREVIEW: Seven Core Issues in Adoption and Permanency

Written by Lauren Lynch, Adoptive Mom and C.A.S.E. Training Coordinator

Published on: Jan 06, 2026

Category Adoption

Throughout this series, you will hear from a range of voices within the adoption constellation including adoptees, birth and first parents, adoptive parents, and adoption-competent professionals. Each perspective adds depth and nuance, reminding us that no single story defines adoption. By centering lived experience alongside clinical insight, we aim to deepen understanding, reduce stigma, and support all members of the constellation with honesty and compassion.

The Seven Core Issues in Adoption is a model originally developed in 1982 by Sharon Kaplan Roszia and Deborah Silverstein.

The model has since been expanded upon by Roszia and Allison Davis Maxon to include all types of permanency as well as all members of the adoption constellation including adoptees, birth parents, adoptive parents, and other family members.

This groundbreaking framework highlights the impact trauma and attachment have on adoptees and those involved in the adoption experience. Awareness and a deepened understanding of the seven issues encourage healthy attachments as well as the compassion necessary for those who need healing.

The seven core issues are loss, rejection, shame and guilt, grief, identity, intimacy, and mastery and control.

The degree to which a person struggles with the core issues varies, and some may be experienced more intensely than others.

For the next seven months, we will explore each of the core issues, providing integral information to help you and your family successfully navigate these complicated feelings related to adoption. These issues are not something to find a “quick fix” for. They are complex, layered, and lifelong.